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Breaking News
Equity Residential Plans Historic Rehab in
Downtown Berkeley Community
Martin Building Co. Plans $60MM
Apartment Project in Downtown
San Francisco
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JANUARY 29, 2013
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POSTED ON JANUARY 22, 2013 BY PUBLISHER IN BREAKING NEWS, RESIDENTIAL
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CORENET JAN 2013
JANUARY 23, 2013
By Jon Peterson
Equity Residential Plans Historic
Rehab in Downtown Berkeley
Community
As if the nearly 5,000-unit Bay Area apartment portfolio it is acquiring in the Archstone
sale weren’t enough for Equity Residential, the Chicago landlord continues its steady
regional expansion, this time in Berkeley.
With approval from the city’s Zoning Adjustments Board behind it, the publicly traded
real estate investment trust expects to start construction early next year on the $90
JANUARY 22, 2013
More BREAKING news
million Acheson Commons, a more than one-acre redevelopment project that includes
renovation of multiple historic buildings immediately east of the University of California
campus.
CONTRIBUTORS
McNellis: Rosy
Predictions for the New
Year
“Berkeley is a market that we are very familiar with. We already own eight buildings
totaling 600 units. It is one of our core markets in the Bay Area,” said Peter Solar, a
vice president of development for Equity Residential. “It’s attractive because of its high
barriers to entry, a highly educated workforce and the high level of public
transportation that already exists.”
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Touching New
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Equity Residential has owned the Acheson Commons site since 2010 when it paid
$13.5 million to the Reeves Trust to buy it. It submitted its first application to the city of
Berkeley in November that year.
The project is to include the complete rehabilitation of the four-story, 1925 Beaux Artsstyle landmark Acheson Physicians building and the partial rehab of two other
landmark historic buildings and a third building eligible for the California Register. New
structures are to be added to the top of the landmark MacFarlane and Ace Hardware
buildings and the Boldt/Krishna Copy building, which is eligible for California
recognition.
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Housing Rents Climbing
Faster Than Most Know
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The apartment company hopes to start the project in the first quarter of 2014 and
plans 24 months to complete it.
Solar works from the company’s regional office in downtown San Francisco at Market
and 3rd streets.
In all, Equity expects to have not quite 26,000 square feet of retail and 205
apartments, 184 of which are market-rate and 21 below-market rate. All of the existing
JANUARY 29, 2013
Silicon Valley Office Market Rally Continues
Says Studley Report
JANUARY 29, 2013
“We plan to ask the Ace Hardware store to remain in the project. We are also thinking
that there might be a restaurant or deli with some outside seating,” Solar said.
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Through the Year
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Equity expects to spend $30,000 a year supplying every apartment resident in the
complex a free transit pass. The complex also is expected to have a pet-washing area,
Solar said. There also will be an area on-site for any resident to complete bicycle
repairs.
“I would think that people who work at the University of California at Berkeley could
live in our property. Students at the school could be residents in some of the belowmarket units. Given that we are one-and-a-half blocks from a BART station, we should
attract people who work in downtown San Francisco,” too, Solar said.
Equity Residential has multiple development and redevelopment projects either under
construction or in planning in the Bay Area. The first units of a 444-unit project in San
Jose will be delivered in June. Construction will start on the 554-unit Equity Tasman
project in North San Jose in September. In March the company expects to start
construction on the 273-unit Block 13 project in Mission Bay in San Francisco.
The REIT hasn’t named a planned project at Lorton and Howard avenues in the posh
Peninsula community of Burlingame where it hopes to replace an existing parking
facility with a multi-level, 140-apartment and parking complex.
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The Burns Tract in Stockton Sold
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Tagged Berkeley, Equity Residential, Kirk E. Peterson & Associates Architects, Oakland,
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Related Links by Contextly
Equity Residential Agrees to Sell $1.5 Billion of Assets to a Joint Venture of
Goldman Sachs and Greystar | The Registry 3 weeks ago
Acheson Commons Receives Approval For $90MM Investment In Berkeley; Set
To Commence 4Q 2013 | The Registry 2 weeks ago
Equity Residential Continues Its Expansion in the Bay Area | The Registry
5 months ago
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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
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offices on the property—about 17,000 square feet—will be removed. Oakland-based
Kirk E. Peterson & Associates Architects and Rhoades Planning Group are overseeing
the project’s design.
The existing Acheson Commons has been less than 50 percent occupied for some
time.
OCTOBER 26, 2012
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